The art of correspondence
From "Ever Yours, Henry James,'' a site-specific installation by conceptual artist Elane Reichek based on novelist Henry James's letters to Isabella Stewart Gardner, the founder of the Boston museum (which opened in 1903) where this show will run through December.
The show is a graphic sampler composed of fragments from Henry James's letters to Isabella Stewart Gardner. Ms. Reichek was especially drawn to how Mr. James closed his letters to Mrs. Gardner, from the more formal "with many good wishes" to the very affectionate "always constantly."
By focusing on these closings, Ms. Reichek hopes to illustrate the depth of Mrs. Gardner's and Mr. James's long friendship. Ms. Reichek says: "By making use of the older 19th Century private epistolary mode for a public contemporary art piece, I wanted to cross the literal passage between the old and the new....’’